Illegals In My Yard: A Conservative Christmas Carol

According to Think Progress, Human events posted an offensive carol based in the song Feliz Navidad. To prove that the holiday spirit is all about caring about a fellow human being the renamed the song “Illegals in My yard”. The term illegal is clearly offensive and the accepted terminology is undocumented worker.

Obviously this song is offensive for many reasons but what really stood out to me is that hate filled commentary is directed at [email protected] If this issue was really about immigration clearly they would have noted that Latino’s are not the only people living in the U.S . without the proper paperwork. This is about racism as much as it is about concern that undocumented workers are stealing jobs.

These right wingers always wrap their argument in patriotism, however; it is about sustaining undeserved White privilege. They know that the racial balance in the U.S. is tipping each day and some states are already minority/majority states. This particularly why they are so fixated on the birth rate of WOC. By painting them as diseased breeders they hope to stigmatize the identity of Latina women.

The constantly harp on the supposed cost that undocumented workers cause the economy without admitting that there are large segments of the US economy is dependent upon their undervalued labour. From the garment industry to agriculture without their labour it is certain that many of the products that Americans currently enjoy would be unaffordable.

The reason Latina workers are attempting to cross the US border to begin with is specifically because Americans have impoverished their countries. The U.S. has long considered South America to be part of its sphere of influence and this has meant mass poverty to millions of people. The Global South has functioned as an economic colony for generations. From swaps to unfair trade agreements the global economy is decidedly structured to favour the Global North. To punish these people for attempting to escape the crushing poverty that the U.S has purposefully created speaks of a desire to maintain undeserved privilege.

To be clear, ones nationality is an accident of birth. Being born in the Global North is not an accomplishment nor should it entitle anyone to a life of privilege. This very simply concept often escapes the understanding of many. In the name of North American privilege, the U.S government has engaged in much illegal activity in the Global South all the while wagging its finger and acting though it is morally superior. When the gov’t sent the military to break up a strike that Chiquita workers were trying to organize, leading to the death of Latina workers where was the moral superiority?

These right wing conservatives will always say that they should fix the problems in their country and not come here without giving consideration to large number of evil dictators that the U.S has purposefully propped up because it serves their purposes. If you want to staunch the flow of people attempting to cross the border the best way would be to start engaging in fair trade and to stop interfering in their attempts to create democratic socialized governments. This will not happen because the Americans are addicted to their over valued dollar. The only crime that these undocumented workers have committed is to attempt to escape the shackles of American tyranny.